The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, a method of manufacturing the same, and a wireless transmission system utilizing the same.
Semiconductor devices to which a semiconductor chip for communication is mounted, and a wireless transmission system utilizing such a semiconductor device are known. A semiconductor device and wireless transmission system, is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2002-100698 and 2009-038696 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Documents 1 and 2). Such a semiconductor chip for communication is normally provided in a package.
With any of the techniques described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, a semiconductor chip having a wireless transmission function is provided inside a package, an antenna structure is provided in the package, and thus data transmission is carried out through the antenna.
For example, with the technique described in Patent Document 1, a semiconductor chip and external connection terminals are provided in a circuit substrate, and a filter circuit layer is provided in an inner layer of the circuit substrate. In this case, the filter circuit is electrically connected to the semiconductor chip, thereby taking out a high-frequency electric signal in a required frequency band. Also, an antenna circuit layer electrically connected to the filter circuit layer is provided on a surface layer of the circuit substrate. It is described in Patent Document 1 that the miniaturization can be carried out because the filter circuit layer and the antenna circuit layer is incorporated integrally with the circuit substrate having the semiconductor chip mounted thereto, and the cost is also reduced because the number of parts is reduced.
Patent Document 2 proposes an integrated circuit package with an antenna in which a waveguide is provided in a thickness direction of a chassis portion, and thus a micro-strip/waveguide conversion is carried out. Specifically, a side to which an integrated circuit chip of a chassis portion is mounted is mounted like a flip chip to a mounting substrate, and a planar antenna is provided on a side opposite to the chassis portion. It is described in Patent Document 2 that the small integrated circuit package with an antenna is obtained because with the structure that all the constituent elements are mounted to a front surface side of the mounting substrate, the antenna is provided in the chassis portion.
However, with the technique described in Patent Document 1, since the various kinds of structural elements are disposed outside the semiconductor chip, when the various kinds of structural elements are all desired to be encapsulated, the package size becomes large. In addition, the technique described in Patent Document 1 requires both the filter circuit layer and the antenna circuit layer. Thus, the layer structure is complicated, and it cannot be said that the cost is reduced. In addition, it is also thought that the transmission characteristics are deteriorated due to the multilayer structure having a wire and a via. Thus, Patent Document 1 involves the drawbacks that must be solved.
With the technique described in Patent Document 2, since the base is made of a metal, and the structure is disposed outside the chip, the package size becomes large. Additionally, the manufacture of the integrated circuit package with the antenna is difficult. As such, the technique described in Patent Document 2 involves special manufacturing, which is a drawback.